One Night in Valeria - Chapter 12: Chapter 12

The conservatory flashback (Years Ago) “You think they'll forgive you because you’re in red?”
“No,” Klara Hale had said quietly. “I don’t want their forgiveness. I want them to remember me.”
The memory wasn’t Jessica’s.
But she saw it now in a photo delivered in that second letter.
Her mother.
Standing proudly beside Dorian Velar.
Hand on her slight baby bump.
Not hidden.
Not ashamed.
And certainly not quiet.
Present at Jessica's apartment,the woman with the sharp eyes returned.
“My name is Vera Velar,” she said, setting down a silver locket on Jessica’s counter. Dorian’s wife. Now his widow. breath hitched.
“So why are you here?
“To tell you that not every enemy wears your enemy’s name. And not every ally wants you alive.”
She slid a legal envelope across the table.
“This is a trust. Set up secretly by Dorian. It names you not Liam as the Velar legacy heir to his private estate.”
Jessica blinked.
“He left it to… me?”
He believed he owed you something. But the board will fight this if you try to claim it. Let them. “Then understand what you’re stepping into,” Vera warned. “Liam may be protecting you now… but even he can’t control the storm that’s coming.”
Meanwhile inside Velar Global
Liam slammed Smith against the glass wall of the boardroom.
“You leaked the photo,” he growled.
Smith laughed. “It was public history. I just gave it context.”
Liam’s fist cracked into his jaw.
The security team rushed in, but Smith wiped blood from his mouth and smiled like a man who just landed the blow himself.
“You're in love with her,” Smith whispered. “But she’s fire. And you? You’ve always been built to burn.”
Later at Jessica's studio she stood in front of her mannequin, tearing fabric, sketching blindly.
She’d been afraid for too long.
Now they’d seen her.
Mocked her.
Exposed her.
So she would dress like vengeance.
Her new line wouldn’t be for clients.
It would be a fashion revolution.
A statement: I am Hale. I am Velar. I am not afraid.
Celeste arrived quietly, watching her from the doorway. “You're changing,” she said softly.
Jessica didn’t stop sketching.
“No,” she said. “I’m becoming.”
Jessica’s apartment that night Liam show up, she didn’t expect him to show up.
But Liam stood at her door, drenched in rain, eyes dark and soft and dangerous all at once.
“I’m not here as a Velar,” he said. “Not as a CEO.”
“Then why?”
Because I remember the look in your eyes that night. And I haven’t stopped thinking about you since.
Jessica’s voice cracked. “You lied to me.”
I never lied. I just didn’t tell you who I was. I didn’t know if I deserved to.
“And now?”
He stepped closer. “Now I know I don’t.” A beat of silence.
Then she said something he didn’t expect. “Then earn me.”